Brighton Fringe Review: All City Movement

Graffiti artist Jussi TwoSeven paid a visit to Brighton earlier this month to complete five large monochrome paintings in different locations across the city as part of the Fringe’s Finnish Season. Two paintings adorn the walls of Brighton Youth Centre on Edward Street, while another two are located around the sides of shops in Bond Street. A fifth image can be seen on the upper storey wall of Peter Joannou hairdressers on Middle street.

An animated gif on Jussi TwoSeven’s website collects these five images together, giving an instant visual explanation of the ‘All City Movement’ title. Each painting depicts the same wolf in different stages of motion. When viewed together they make a kind of street art flick book which shows the animal running. It’s a beautiful concept.

The street level paintings on Bond street offer the best opportunity to inspect the artist’s technique close up. Jussi TwoSeven uses a combination of acrylic paint and sprayed stencil work to create an unusually painterly form of graffiti. The base layer is brushed on, and the texture and highlights of the animal’s fur is then overlaid with stencils. The paint is allowed to drip freely and create its own random effects in each location.

The paintings on Edward Street do feel a little less effective, as they are painted on red brick and thus their handmade brush effects are less noticeable – plus the flow of the image is broken by the bumpy brick surface. The Middle Street wolf is in by far the best overall location, on the other hand – high up on its clean white background, viewers can really step back and get the full graphic effect of the piece. Catch them while you can!

Peter did a degree in world art history and anthropology, before spending three years in the Japanese countryside teaching English at village schools. For the past eleven years he has worked as a freelance illustrator.

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